How deep will the Adelaide "Football" club's premiership drought go?

[Southerntakeover]

I have these vivid memories as a youth of laughing at those loser clubs who had massive premiership droughts. Sneering at the likes of Sydney, Geelong, the Western Bulldogs, Richmond. Imagine following a club like that, I thought. Then they all overtook us. Ouchy.

Our premiership-losing streak is well into its third decade, and only the most delusional of plankton think that there's any prospect of it ending soon. Personally, i don't think we've even begun recruiting the core that could win one. There is no prospect of a premiership from the current group, or that it could be the basis of one with more experience.

How far deep into that drought will the deeply unsuccessful football club go feeding on our membership money go? How many back pats and self promotions will occur before we lift a cup?

Over to you wise voters.

 

[Cap]

 

[Southerntakeover]

Too scared to vote Cap?

 

[Cap]

Too scared to vote Cap?

 

[Grenville]

22 years now? < 30 feasible if we nail rebuild.
5 or 6 years from here at earliest

 

[Southerntakeover]

You're unspooling a bit today, aren't you Cap ?

Is this really the best defence of the club you can mount? A middle aged man spamming bad attempts at memes?

You truly embody the spirit of the Adelaide Football Club.

 

[Southerntakeover]

22 years now? < 30 feasible if we nail rebuild.
5 or 6 years from here at earliest

Do you have any confidence that our next window will be any less wasted than our last three?

 

[Cap]

You're unspooling a bit today, aren't you Cap ?

Is this really the best defence of the club you can mount? A middle aged man spamming bad attempts at memes?

You truly embody the spirit of the Adelaide Football Club.

 

[Southerntakeover]

We were very good in 2017, comfortably better than Richmond who were pretty mediocre. A GF at Adelaide Oval that year would have been similar to the 2014 Elimination Final here. But everything pivots on the actual results. They went up and we went down. It would have been the opposite under a fair system.

Didnt we finish with the same record?

 

[Southerntakeover]

Shitty meme #11424741

One of these memes will bestow a personality on you, you've just got to find the right one...

 

[Cap]

One of these memes will bestow a personality on you, you've just got to find the right one...

 

[radiojake]

Our premiership-losing streak is well into its second decade

The streak is into its 3rd decade, actually

 

[Big Gazoongas]

Can't see one within the next 10.
There is still another 7 years to go with no voting rights for members, so I see no reason that the current board or those they appoint with change anything soon.

The only hope is when members are able to vote and then it will take time to get this club in order.

 

[Cap]

The streak is into its 3rd decade, actually

That 30 year reunion will be bleak

 

[SaltPeter]

Can't see one within the next 10.
There is still another 7 years to go with no voting rights for members, so I see no reason that the current board or those they appoint with change anything soon.

The only hope is when members are able to vote and then it will take time to get this club in order.

Sydney is still an AFL elected board. There’s no reason to think the AFL will automatically allow Adelaide’s members to have full voting rights when the agreement matures

 

[Samcro24]

With the dogs and the saints contending in 97, there was a lot of talk about their premiership droughts. After winning back to back, I too used to be thankful that I didn’t follow a club like that. How frustrating and depressing that must be. Well now I know.

I posted on here a while back that we will never win one again. I believed it then, and I’m sure of it now.

We have a lot to overcome in terms of the competition. It’s not an even playing field. You can’t just be competent (not that we are) on and off the field. You have to be ruthless, savvy, calculating. You need an edge. We are not better than anyone, at anything meaningful.

We are none of these things. Too many egos, too much self interest, arrogance, delusions of grandeur. It’s never our fault, or it’s just bad luck. We lie, we spin, we deflect.

The worst part is there’s a significant portion of the fan base who enables this.

There is zero accountability. Not to the fans, not even in the media. Why don’t they get called out on their blatant incompetence?

How’s that elite footy dept you promised going Fagan? Do you feel silly calling Burton an elite footy manager a couple of weeks before being sacked Chapman? Roo, do you regret telling supporters to trust your judgement just before an external review sacked two key members of your footy department? Why did you need an external review in the first place? Why does a required player leave every year?

That’s just the tip of the iceberg but it illustrates an administration that is inept, totally out of its depth, unable to deliver on its promises.

Until there’s a massive change at the top we won’t win a crumpet. Flags are hard enough to win without self inflicted handicaps. As it stands I believe the drought will persist for decades, and I don’t think I’ll see the third flag.

 

[Big Gazoongas]

Sydney is still an AFL elected board. There’s no reason to think the AFL will automatically allow Adelaide’s members to have full voting rights when the agreement matures

Not sure the difference between their and our constitution.

I thought our voting rights were linked to a time line of 2028 which was part of the licence buyback from the SANFL.

You could be right as I am not across the detail of this.

Does anyone have concrete info on this point?

 

[SaltPeter]

Not sure the difference between their and our constitution.

I thought our voting rights were linked to a time line of 2028 which was part of the licence buyback from the SANFL.

You could be right as I am not across the detail of this.

Does anyone have concrete info on this point?

That’s what I thought as well. There are some caveats though. Being financially viable is 1 key. There are a couple of others.

 

[Southerntakeover]

The streak is into its 3rd decade, actually

Touche.

 

[Scorpus]

Has there ever been a club that ended a long premiership drought that didn't make significant changes to the executive team?

 

[Southerntakeover]

Can't see one within the next 10.
There is still another 7 years to go with no voting rights for members, so I see no reason that the current board or those they appoint with change anything soon.

The only hope is when members are able to vote and then it will take time to get this club in order.

The club's board has the power to bestow voting rights on only a limited class of voters.

Absent wide spread public pressure and a fan revolt, they will confer only upon the elite classes. The board and like minded spivs.

 

[Southerntakeover]

If fixturing wasn't ridiculously uneven I would take your point.

Richmond lost away to every finals opponent it played in 2017. It takes an adjustment in thinking to turn it around and understand how absurd that actually makes everything that came after. I've heard people say Hawthorn's 2015 premiership was remarkable because they travelled to Perth twice and won through to the GF. They LOST to West Coast, then beat some other side that was not West Coast, then got to HOST the Grand Final against the Eagles. 2/4 finals at home including HOSTING the GF, in a campaign where they lost their opening final? Hello? Is it any wonder we can't put a dynasty together like they can?

Yeah, I don't disagree with the underlying premise that the competition is fundamentally unequal based upon victorian, or more particularly melbourne, bias.

I just don't think that our 2017 should be inflated with nostalgia. We were not an impressive team for most of the second half of the year, historically speaking.

 

[Southerntakeover]

Has there ever been a club that ended a long premiership drought that didn't make significant changes to the executive team?

Good question- I suspect not.

 

[Scorpus]

Yeah, I don't disagree with the underlying premise that the competition is fundamentally unequal based upon victorian, or more particularly melbourne, bias.

I just don't think that our 2017 should be inflated with nostalgia. We were not an impressive team for most of the second half of the year, historically speaking.

A team having a good record in Melbourne in 2017 wasn't that surprising either: only 2 Melbourne teams finished in the top 8

 

[glengowan]

There is also a perception that the Victorian sides have their own challenge, playing a lot more neutral games than non-Vic sides do.

But the evidence does not support this.

In neutral games since 1990, the higher-ranked side wins on average by about 20 points. Change it to a home game against a side from out of state, the margin increases to about 22 points.

So what matters is not being at home, but being in neutral or better conditions. A Vic side will win in neutral or better conditions vast majority of the time against a side it is better than, and will travel into unfavourable conditions far fewer times in a season.

So they'll finish higher when they're good, and lower when they're sh*t. This is why Victorian sides monopolise the best H&A records since 1990, and bottom out harder for longer when they suck. Meanwhile we are crunched into that no-man's land away from the extremes that are designed to get you somewhere.

Throw in never hosting a GF and there is simply no equal opportunity ever.

This is exactly what the administration should be fighting for every month until there is a correction. No need to make it a public whinge campaign, but make it known to the AFL how biased this competition is. They should also be fighting tooth and nail, with Port Adelaide, for access to the best junior footballers in this state. As is the case with the northern teams.

The AFL has done everything it can to weaken the SANFL to the point it has become an irrelevant competition to most below the age of 30. It’s not inconceivable that we are overtaken by other states over the next decade and lose that cultural football advantage we had when entering the competition.

If the Adelaide Football Club isn’t going to make a stand for football in South Australia, I’d rather we give up the licence and let a real football club, like Norwood, represent South Australia on the national stage.

The Crows should be every bit the powerful football club West Coast is and the fact we are lingering hopelessly last, with 1 Grand Final appearance in 20 years and zero premierships, is a debacle. And the fact the Chairman is still there that has overseen this whole mess is beyond comprehension.